UP to sign Power for All pact on Apr 14 to meet Govt target

The ambitious ‘Power for All’ pact will be signed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on April 14 to meet the Centre’s target of making the state energy efficient by 2018.

The UP government under Yogi Adityanath has committed to provide power for all by 2018.(HT Archive)

The ambitious ‘Power for All’ pact will be signed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on April 14 to meet the Centre’s target of making the state energy efficient by 2018.

“We will make all out efforts to meet the target given by the Prime Minister to ensure ‘Power for All’ by 2018 and hope to achieve it before the given time frame,” UP Power Minister Srikant Sharma said here today.

He was briefing mediapersons on the marathon meeting of power department officials chaired by the Chief Minister, which went on well past midnight.

The minister said that after successfully providing uninterrupted 24-hour power supply at all the ‘shaktipeeths’ during the Navratri recently, the Chief Minister has directed that electricity should be ensured for students during the ongoing examination season.

“It was the order of the Chief Minsiter that all shaktipeeths are supplied 24-hour power during Navratris and we have been successful in it...examiantions are on and students should get power during the night so that they do not have to suffer...orders have been issued to officials concerned to ensure supply during examination time,” he said.

During the power-point presentation of the electricity department which continued till 0100 AM, the Chief Minister directed the officials to ensure uninterrupted supply to the villages from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning so as to help the students prepare for exams.

The power minister said Adityanath also stressed on maintaining the roster prepared for 18-hour power supply in villages, 20-hour at the tehsil level and Bundelkhand region and 24-hour at the district headquarters and orders have been issued to the officials concerned.

Efforts are being made so that that the roster is followed as the aim of the goverment is to provide 24-hour supply to all citizens at a reasonable rate at all levels -- be it villages or the poor.

“It is the dream of BJP chief Amit Shah and Chief Minister that every house, every poor, and every village get power by 2018,” Sharma said.

To a question on the availability of power and how much will have to be bought, the Minister said it was adequate but demand rose at peak hours.

“The first effort is to meet the demand...there is a requirement of more than 16,000 MW in the state and the target is to meet it,” he said.

Stressing that there were incidents of fire due to high tension wires passing over the standing crops in the villages, Sharma said that the Chief Minister has asked for extending compensation to the affected farmers at the earliest.

All the DMs have been asked to extend compensation to the affected farmers in seven days, he added.